Julie James Bailey,
Reel Women: Working in Film and Television.
North Ryde, Australian Film Television and Radio School, 1999.
408pp
AU$29.95 (pb)
(Review copy supplied by Allen & Unwin)
Uploaded 1 March 2000

Julie James Bailey’s book addresses the experiences of women working in the areas of film and television production though their own first hand accounts. The scale and range of interviews featured in the book is impressive and can fairly be deemed representative. The (rather well-worked) pun of Bailey’s title appears to refer merely to the fact that this book is based on actual experiences though, perhaps, Bailey also intends to suggest that these women are particularly “real” as not only are they behind the camera, but are working in non-traditional areas for women, in such areas as sound recording, editing, composing and mixing, cinematography, editing and visual effects. This is not an account which concerns itself with theorizing “real” or perceived gender difference, but with how women perceive and experience it and accommodate and manage its consequences.

This very readable book is a valuable resource and something of a corrective to concentration on high profile Australian female producers and directors whose existence is held to prove that the Australian screen trade is a “woman-friendly” domain. Nevertheless Bailey does include some interviews with directors – from such foundational older guard members as Gillian Armstrong and, briefly, some more recent additions such as Rachel Perkins.

The book begins with a section on “women’s history in film” which is the weakest section of the book, it is very sketchy and adds little to the field. Following this section the interviews are presented, in sections based on production areas for film and then for television. Bailey begins each section with a useful description of the areas being covered – although for the neophyte this is not always comprehensive enough to explain technical terms and brand name usage in subsequent interviews (a glossary would have been helpful).

There are a number of ways to read this book, or to put it another way, the book can be seen as working at a number of different levels. As an account of an industry’s workings it maps out the possibilities, recounting first hand experiences of, mostly quite successful, persons in a competitive field. It offers practical advice. Readers seeking a career in film can assess the value of tertiary courses (The Australian Film, Television and Radio School, the book’s publisher, receives an excellent plug), the workings of informal “apprenticeships” and learn of the absolute need for sponsors, mentors and networks for accessing work. It can also be read more specifically as concerning the experiences of women working in a male dominated field of great pressure and intensity, where good relationships are vital for further access and where gender further complicates other workplace practices and hierarchies.

Finally it can also be read as an instance of the difficulties of female incursion into previously masculine spheres involving something analogous to cross-cultural difficulties in communication, in addition to the ensuing “unsettling” of sub-social organizations and the threat to both status and status quo that such incursions represent. Bailey (245) makes the point that the experiences of women in the television industry closely parallel these of women in management positions in other male-dominated industries and in an appendix she provides a useful summary of other research in this area.

The book intends to be a very practical intervention in presenting women as role models. Annie Cocksedge (116) for example, says that women don’t go into sound mixing: “It’s the usual female thing of `No I can’t do that, because I’ve never done that, and because I’ve never though of doing that'” but this account furnishes such stymied imaginations with manifest possibilities. An impressive aspect of modeling provided by the interviews is that however differently these women respond to the inequities and structural blockages of their workplaces – few seeking legal redress – they rarely respond by becoming the product of the other’s view. They may rage or cry (there’s a section on tears), but they don’t resign or lose the commitment, perseverance and self-confidence on which their positions rely.

All of the interviewees comment under the heading “issues for women”. Unsurprisingly, but rather disappointingly, a main issue for women was men and working with men. Annabelle Sheehan (84) describes the masculine culture of the mixing room: “I suspect” she argues, “that men find it easier to pass on knowledge to each other … [and] look after each other a bit better than they look after women colleagues. They might want to save a male colleague … whereas they are quite happy for women to make mistakes … so there is no safety net … and so there are many more women casualties” (84-5). Dany Cooper (155) says “I think its harder for women to become editors than men. Women fall more easily into support roles. I think women are sometimes passive in the ways they seek work”.

The accounts in this book points to the necessity of forms of support for women in male-dominated industries. At the same time the interviews also reveal that a number of women have found such encouragement, informally as well as via structural initiatives, from both male and female colleagues. For these reasons and for its well-informed snapshot of industry in a process of change, Reel Women will make a very useful addition to the reading lists of media-related courses and merits a wider audience.

Jane Landman